Movies With Butter

This weekend is a story in exceeding expectations for this last Friday’s batch of new releases—the highly-rated Gravity earned above even its high projected gross for the weekend, and the slightly less highly-rated Runner Runner somehow managed to earn below its meager predicted range.

Sitting most comfortably at the top of the charts is Gravity, which earned a whopping $55.5 million over the weekend--$20 million more than it was expected to make. It just goes to show that you can’t beat a thoughtful, thrilling, original film.

Next came the top film of last week’s set of new releases, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, which earned another $21.5 million (it should be noted that many new releases don’t make that much on their opening weekend) for a sum of $60.5 million. It was chased by the less fortunate of this weekend’s new films, Runner Runner, which earned only $7.6 million. If the windfall received by Gravity is a lesson in the success of a genuinely well-written film, then the disappointment of Runner Runner is a warning to those who keep releasing trite, cookie-cutter films, hoping that a star-studded cast will make up for a lack of a good script.

After that came Prisoners, which made $5.7 million for a total of $47.8 million. It was followed by Rush, which earned another $4.4 million for a cumulative sum of $18 million.

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